Panthers coach Dave Canales discusses the quaterback's ankle injury following Sunday's win against the Jets. By Mike Kaye
The Carolina Panthers gritted out a 13-6 win over the New York Jets on the road thanks to a two-interception day from Jaycee Horn, a turnover-free performance from the offense and a close-to-flawless day on special teams.
Still, there was a lot to talk about.
The most pressing matter had to do with the health of starting quarterback Bryce Young, who exited the game in the third quarter with an ankle injury and didn’t return thereafter. He was replaced by Andy Dalton, who brought the ship to shore with a solid performance — which included a deep, game-clinching pass to Xavier Legette on third-and-2 late in the contest.
Young finished 15 of 25 for 138 yards and one touchdown passing, and added 10 yards rushing. Starting running back Chuba Hubbard finished with 31 yards on 14 carries, and backup Rico Dowdle finished with 17 carries for 79 yards. Legette led all receivers in targets (11), receptions (9), yards (92) and touchdowns (1).
On defense, defensive lineman Derrick Brown, safety Nick Scott and Christian Rozeboom led the team with seven tackles each . Brown notched two of the team’s six sacks on the day. Others getting a sack: Nic Scourton (1.5), Tre’Von Moehrig (1), A’Shawn Robinson (1) and Princely Umanmielen (0.5).
Here is head coach Dave Canales, who addressed all of this after the win in his postgame presser.
Oct 19, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales looks on in the first quarter against the Carolina Panthers at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images Robert Deutsch Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images
Opening statement from Dave Canales
“(The Jets) were an aggressive group, and the guys challenged us in every way you could think of: in the pass game, with the pressures, in the run game, all those things. So I gotta just tip my hat to them. We’re grinding it out, just trying to find solutions, find yards. Andy was able to come in there, get a critical third down for us. Xavier with the big day, just all the hard work paying off.
“And then of course you just can’t say enough about the defense, coming away with six sacks, a couple of interceptions there, and just really playing excellent football all the way through the game.”
Update on the condition of Bryce Young
“We’re evaluating him for the right ankle, so we’re taking in all the information, and we’re going to look at him when we get home some more and see where we’re at. ...
“(It happened) on that long third down, was trying to get out of trouble there and got caught up a little bit. So we’ll update you as soon as we have more information.”
How the carry distribution with Rico Dowdle, Chuba Hubbard went
“It came out just how we thought it would. We just switched some series and let those guys go out there and play some football for us. We’re able to find some yards in different ways, some screens, some different things like that. As they were trying to make things difficult, we were able to get the ball on the edge a couple of times with Rico in there. So I just thought it was a good day of both guys running physically, running aggressive, and it ended up paying off for us.”
Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales looks on during warmups prior to the game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium Oct. 19, 2025 Robert Deutsch Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images
On Jaycee Horn’s performance: 2 second-half interceptions
“Yeah, just clutch play, doing right, doing right longer, and that’s our definition of finish and putting himself in position to make those plays. It’s really just his ability, his ball skills to be able to come up with those plays was huge for us. It gave us a chance to put it away two drives before the end, really, with the interceptions.
“But the defense just showed up collectively. Princely is another guy that just showed up for us today, and got banged up a little bit, and went back out there and finished. And I thought, ‘What a great step for him,’ just telling the team how much this means to him, to be out there and be available for the guys.”
If Bryce Young can’t go next week, how does offense change with Andy Dalton?
“We’ll look at it. We’ll look at all that, and see what the best version of us is. But right now, it’s running the football, and Andy can handle all those things. The pass game, the reps, the time on task with the group that we have: We got to stay within our core of our system. And you know, Andy’s fully involved in all that. So if he does play that, that’ll be the mode.”
Young has been quite durable. Does that speak to injury severity?
“We’ll see. We’ll look at all the information. We’ll make sure we trust our docs and get the full evaluation, and we’ll go from there.”
On the absence of Damien Lewis and the offensive line’s depth
“I think the (shoulder) injury happened on Thursday, and we started moving them around, trying to mobilize it. We just couldn’t get a strength back to a point where we felt safe about playing, putting him out there.
“The beautiful timing of Austin Corbett coming back. I got to watch the film, but you know, first impression is that Austin did a great job just continuing to allow us to play our style of offense.”
What it means to have a winning record at this point in the season
“We just take it one game at a time. We celebrate the win, celebrate the heck out of it just now. The resilience of this group, the focus, the toughness to finish what we needed it, guys making plays on the offense, on special teams. I thought Trevor Etienne did an excellent job today, fielding the ball and making some yards out of that. So he handled all those punts great, which was, which was such a good thing.
“And then, of course, for example, to come through and a one on one opportunity, they challenged us all game and to make the play when we had a chance, it was huge.”
On Bryce Young’s day prior to the injury
“He was doing excellent. Throwing in rhythm, manufacturing, making sure we’re getting to the right runs based on the looks and all those things. He’s been just continuing to build off of that, just feeling confident about our process and being able to push our football forward. So he’s been doing a great job.”
More on Jaycee Horn’s day, plus some thoughts on Mike Jackson
“It was huge, just from a standpoint of guys expecting their teammates to show up and make big plays. Just the excitement and the energy that brought the sideline for him to come up with both of those interceptions in critical situations.
“And Mike Jackson had a couple of really beautiful plays on a one-on-one go ball down the field in the end zone, and then an end cut, you know, a little bit later on the last drive — really close to picking that ball off. And then we had kind of a ‘tie goes to the runner’ situation on the sideline where they got a first down. He had both hands on it. He’s trying to pull the ball away. So I thought those guys just played excellent together today.”
Was it gratifying to see Trevor Etienne play well as a returner?
Etienne finished Sunday with three punt returns for 35 yards and one kick return for 45.
“Absolutely. Just working on his craft every day. What is my next step? And the next step was fielding those punts cleanly. If we find yards, great. Good. But if we catch them all, we save a lot of yards. And he did an excellent job today with that.”
On defense’s clutch fourth quarter
“Again, just great for the players to feel every phase, doing their part. Special teams, covering the kicks, returning the ball, getting us positive gains there. Offensively, making yards, making first downs. Third down: it was a little bit of a rough day for us on third down, but we found some good completions early on to move the chains, to give us chances. But I just love the fact that when everybody has a chance to affect the game, and they do, the trust factor and the confidence of the group takes a step and grows.”
‘Really proud of the group’
““I cannot leave this podium without, again, just talking about the Jets. (Defensive coordinator) coach (Steve) Wilkes and just the job that they did, and our guys to have the resilience to take care of the football was a big deal today, especially with the challenges that we were presented so really proud of the group and the way we finished.”
Final question on Bryce Young: How did you find out about the injury?
“It was all the trainers just doing their job of evaluating him and being able to say whether he could get back out there and put, you know, force on that ankle and change directions and do the things we need him to do within our scheme. And it just felt like we couldn’t get him back out there soon enough. And we’ll give you more information as we gather information. ... Again, I won’t give any specifics. I don’t have the specifics right now, so I think we’re just going to have to just do our evaluation.”